Black Barber Sues Waukesha Cops For Racial Profiling After They Cuffed And Searched Him Over Having ‘2 Phones’

Here’s the thing: It’s incredibly difficult, especially as a Black person, to prove a cop is guilty of racial profiling. Conversely, it’s incredibly easy for a cop to get around probable cause when deciding, unilaterally, that a citizen, especially a Black citizen, is suspicious enough to detain and search. It’s a system of “justice” that makes it convenient for police officers to navigate around Black people’s rights, and an exhausting uphill battle for Black people just to have our claims of racial bias taken seriously.

Milwaukee resident Jessie Watkins has filed a federal lawsuit against Waukesha police officers, who he says racially profiled him when they stopped and detained him after he pulled over to the side of the road to send a text message, and refused to believe he had two cell phones because he owns a business, not because he’s a drug dealer. That last part is perfectly demonstrated in police bodycam footage of the stop.

From WTMG 4:

As a well-known barber, Watkins says he always carries two phones.

“I have almost 400 regular clients,” Watkins said. “I didn’t want my business life to conflict with my personal life, so I went and got a second phone.”

As a former truck driver, Watkins says he’s particularly conscious about not texting while driving, which is why he pulled over. Watkins never thought those two decisions would be considered suspicious until Waukesha police officers approached him on April 17.

“He’s got two phones,” an officer said. “How come you’ve got so many phones?”

Body camera footage shows officers approaching Watkins and questioning him about the multiple phones he had. Without further explanation, officers asked him to exit the vehicle and immediately escorted him away.

“What is suspicious about what {I am} doing?” Watkins can be heard asking in the footage.

“You’re parked in a known drug-dealing area. It’s a third-party vehicle, you have two phones, you’re smoking,” an officer responded.

“A known drug-dealing area?” Watkins questioned.

The officers proceeded to pat Watkins down, search his pockets, and place him in handcuffs.

And there it is…

If an officer tells a civilian he’s being detained because he’s “parked in a known drug-dealing area,” how does the civilian even begin to dispute that on the spot? Can the officer be compelled to prove, on the spot, that they are in a known drug trafficking area? “Known” to whom? Based on what criteria? What exactly is stopping a cop from claiming a civilian is in a “known drug-dealing area” no matter where they are?

Mind you, when the Waukesha Police Department released a statement regarding the stop, it did not once mention that Watkins was in a known drug trafficking area. Instead, the department accused Watkins of sitting in his car while in a “clearly marked no parking zone.”

“The facts of this case, a uniformed officer observed an illegally parked vehicle in a clearly marked no parking zone during the overnight hours. Due to the vehicle’s heavily tinted windows and its location, the officer made consensual contact with the vehicle to investigate the circumstances.  Heavily tinted windows can prevent officers from seeing inside the vehicle, which can pose safety concerns, especially during nighttime hours.  As such, we are unable to identify if anyone is in the vehicle. The officer approached the vehicle to make contact with the occupant and determine if any assistance was needed or if any violations were occurring,” the WPD’s statement read.

The department also dismissed his claims of racial profiling by noting his windows were tinted, so officers couldn’t have seen that he’s Black — which might be relevant if Watkins’ allegations of racial profiling weren’t clearly based on everything that happened while he interacted with the officers, not before.

“During the encounter, the occupant of the vehicle raised concerns about potential bias in the stop,” the statement continued. “The department takes all such concerns seriously. However, it’s important to clarify that the officer could not see inside the vehicle or determine the identity or demographics of the occupant prior to making contact. The decision to engage in dialogue with the operator of the vehicle was based solely on the vehicle being in violation of a posted no parking zone and the safety concerns associated with being unable to see into the vehicle due to its excessive tint.”

It doesn’t seem like the department actually “takes all such concerns seriously,” considering it completely (and likely intentionally) ignored the context under which Watkins accused the officers of racism.

More from WTMG:

“Being detained for what? For being Black? For being Black in Waukesha?” Watkins asked during the encounter.

When Watkins explained he had pulled over to avoid texting while driving, an officer responded skeptically.

“If you think I’m really going to buy that you’re pulling over to text, does this look like my first day?” the officer said.

“Look at my phone then,” Watkins replied.

“Nobody does that, dude,” the officer said.

Body camera video shows Watkins remained in handcuffs for 30 minutes while officers called a Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office K-9 to sniff his car for drugs. They found a THC vape, but after realizing he had no drugs to sell, they released him without any citations.

Even if one doesn’t believe there is sufficient evidence to determine that Watkins was racially profiled, unless they’re a shameless “back the blue” bootlicker, they would have to admit that not one thing Watkins tried to explain to the officers was unreasonable. It’s not at all far-fetched that someone who was driving pulled over so they could send or respond to what, for all the officers knew, might have been a time-sensitive text. “Nobody does that, dude,” the officer tells Watkins, but of course they do. It would be nice if more motorists were responsible enough to pull over and send a text instead of texting while driving, but the idea that “nobody” does that is absurd — just as absurd as the idea that only drug dealers have a reason to own multiple cell phones.

At the end of the day, it turned out there was zero evidence that Watkins was involved in any drug-related activity, which indicates the officers were wrong in their inability to even conceive that he might be telling the truth.

“It just felt like it was racial,” Watkins told WTMG. “I don’t care what they say. I felt it. I felt degraded, I felt humiliated, I just felt like officers of all people shouldn’t behave that way.”

“I know I was [racially profiled],” Watkins said. “This all escalated because they knew I was Black. How they talked to me, how they treated me, you could feel the racial tension.”

But, see, that’s the problem. All we typically have to offer up as evidence is a feeling. Sure, it tends to be a feeling based on lived experience, but it’s still just a feeling, not a fact. Of course, for officers, what goes for reasonable suspicion is also often based on their feelings. What they observe and how they choose to interpret that observation tends to be all they need to convince their superiors that they conducted a good stop, and it’s often all they need to convince the courts as well.

Watkins’ attorney, William Sulton, agrees that everything about the interaction between his client and the officers screamed racial bias. He also believes it was an illegal stop, and he rightfully rejects the HPD’s copsplanation for why race had nothing to do with it.

“To me, it was a case study in what not to do during a traffic stop,” Sulton said.

“They knew Mr. Watkins was Black when they made contact with him,” he went on to say. “They could see him at that point. If you see a car that’s parked on a street and you’d like that car to move, it is normal for police to say, ‘Hey, we’d like you to move your car.’ It is not normal for police to say get out of the car, let me get your license, let me run your name, let me put you in handcuffs, let me search you. That is not normal. That’s part of an investigation pursuant to an arrest. You would expect that if they actually had probable cause to arrest and they didn’t here.”

Watkins’ lawsuit accuses two officers of violating his civil rights, states that they targeted him because of his race, and that they “knew that they could not search Watkins’ person because they lacked probable cause that Watkins had committed any crime.” It’s unclear what damages Watkins is seeking.

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